Platform economies: Changing the concept of exclusivity

One of the more exciting innovations enabled by technology in recent years is undoubtedly the birth of digital platforms that are seamlessly connecting a user demand with a service supply, while in the process turning known principles upside down.

Take for instance the concept of exclusivity. Going back just a few years ago, companies and brands presented their products and services in their own exclusive universe, most often a website. If you were looking for a hotel in Miami and had a preference for a Marriott or a Hilton hotel, you would visit their respective websites and based on your selection criteria, you would have a few options to choose from. Naturally you had the opportunity to also visit other hotel sites, although odds were since you didn’t know them, you wouldn’t find them, much less choose them. Not to talk about how long it would take you to create a comprehensive list of options to choose from.

Today, most trips to Miami starts at Hotels.com or a service like it, where thousands of accommodation options are presented in one place and often your preference is challenged, since a special offer or a hotel you didn’t know of, makes you choose differently. The result for the user feels exclusive as he/she found something he/she didn’t know of, while the next customer will choose the Marriott and not the Bed & Breakfast he came for, since they had a promotion that week and this perceived upgrade, made this user feel exclusive. In a nutshell, this is the real power of platforms – they allow users to choose from a gigantic number of options, conveniently gathered in one place.

Across all verticals, we see platforms changing how a product or service is chosen. Or rather in most sectors, as financial services, to a large extent continue to believe that investment funds and other instruments are best presented in the brand’s own universe. Putting this in the context of the hotel example above, a fund manager or a retail investor looking to make an investment based on a predefined set of criteria, would have to browse through a huge number of individual sites, as there is no once collective platform presenting him/her with all funds out there.

Until now.

It is the ambition of COHERRA to attract the entire ecosystem of investors to a vast universe, presenting the most comprehensive and curated selection of funds and investment vehicles available anywhere in the World. At COHERRA, we believe exclusivity comes from choosing those investments that best suit your investment profile and with the largest selection of opportunities in one place, we trust more sound investment decisions will be taken in the future.